The Domestics, Trump Stunt Victims, to Donate Album Profits to Civil Rights Group

The Domestics, who split with their record label after a misguided publicity stunt based around President Donald Trump, have released their album Little Darkness. To show where their true political views lie, they're donating half of the profits to a leading civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate crimes.

"We are very excited to release Little Darkness today and announce our partnership with the Southern Poverty Law Center, who will receive 50 percent of the album’s revenue," they wrote on their website. "With complete ownership of our album, we have the freedom to redirect the revenue that would have gone to our label into the hands of an organization dedicated to the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity. It feels so great to finally put these songs out into the world, and we couldn't ask for a better organization to call our partner."

Original plans for its release were trashed in August – nine days before it was set to arrive – after the Portland, Ore., band’s label Tender Loving Empire sent promo cassettes with a label hinting at containing conversations between Trump and former FBI director James Comey to media contacts. The tape carried return addresses for the KKK, the Westboro Baptist Church and InfoWars, leading to a perception that a neo-Nazi or anti-Semitic group was behind the packages. Tender Loving Empire soon accepted full responsibility for the miscalculation and agreed to part company with the band.

Little Darkness is available via digital and streaming services and can be heard on the band’s website. Profits from the planned release party on Sept. 19 in Portland were distributed between the Anti-Defamation League and Multnomah County Women, Infant and Children (WIC). Tender Loving Empire had agreed to match the charity donation as part of the separation agreement.

"We’re grateful to the Domestics for their commitment to justice and equality and to finding creative and generous ways to support those ideals," the SPLC said in a statement reprinted by Billboard. "It’s especially important that the Domestics are mobilizing their communities in a way that creates strength and solidarity in numbers behind the causes they believe in."